"Sometimes a dream is more pleasant than reality. I wish I could just dream and never wake."
Blood.
It was everywhere, coating everything. It was as if it were a waterfall cascading down endlessly with no end. A pair of hands emerged from them, reaching out towards Kiyoko the process. A flash of confusion appeared across her face as she reached out in response. As soon as their hands connected, the image changed. The blood was no longer around, nor was it dark. Instead, the sky was blinding and beautiful. The air was cool, the wind crisp, and the laughter of people filled the area. There was a woman who bore little resemblance to Kiyoko, but she knew who it was. The man that sat with the woman smiled at Kiyoko, offering out his hand as he sat next to the man, a butterfly in his hands.
Smiling, Kiyoko took her father's hand and sat next to him, grabbing his hand as the butterfly flew away. The boy smiled, pulling her into an embrace and held onto her, causing the two adults to smile and laugh as Kiyoko pouted. She tried to remove herself from her brother's death grip, but in the end conceded and stayed in his arms. A smile then played at her lips, closing her eyes as she relaxed in his hold, enjoying the warmth they were bringing. When she opened her eyes again, she was no longer a small child. The arms that encircled her form were possessive, hungry for something, and full of desire.
She turned to face the one who held her so, violet-blue meeting nothing but emptiness. A finger trailed down her cheek, causing a trail of blood to follow in the process. It wasn't her blood, but someone else's. She couldn't tell who it belonged to as the face was blurred. She reached out, grasping the bloodied hand into her own and kept it along her face. She didn't care whose blood this was, who this hand belonged to. The only thing that mattered was that she belonged to it, to him.
And that was all that mattered.
Kiyoko woke, the moon still hanging high in the sky. It appears that Shiranui was missing as well. She frowned slightly before sighing, sitting up in the pew that she had fallen asleep in. She rubbed the corners of her eyes, removing the crust in the process. She took a deep breath as she glanced at her surroundings. This place, it seemed so familiar to her and yet, she knew that was impossible. She had never been here before, that much she knew and was aware of. Standing from her spot, she took a few steps around the destroyed building. With Shiranui gone, all hope of her questions being answered were crushed. He had said he was going to answer them, but now he was nowhere in sight.
"I should return," she stated as she glanced at the building once more. It wasn't wise to be out in the open without Shiranui by her side, but the only problem that presented itself was that she didn't know her way back. She could try and find a way back, but she'd only succeed in getting herself more lost than what she already was. She sighed, pulling at her long locks as she combed her fingers through them. She could at least try, and if she got lost, there was this inkling in the back of her mind that Shiranui would find her once he realized she was gone. With that in mind, she began a slow trek towards the Academy.
The words the prefect spoke, they still haunted her ears, stinging them in the process. The next time he'd see her, he said he would kill her. This caused a glazed look to cover her eyes, because she knew he was not lying. The intent, the seriousness behind those words were conveyed enough through the sound of his voice and the look in his eyes. Her life was in danger should she ever cross paths again with him. There was little choice she had in the matter. She didn't want to always have to look over her back to make sure she wouldn't spot the prefect, and she didn't want to have to feel like her life was in danger all the time. It was bad enough that a pure-blood was trying to make her vampire again.
There was only one option she truly had, and that would be to leave the Academy just for her sake alone. But she didn't want to. It would require her to leave her friends, the ones she had slowly considered family like Sakura. She couldn't leave them, she wouldn't leave them. She had told Aeron that she wasn't raised to run from her problems, and this would be exactly what she was doing. Running. She'd be running away from them instead of facing them. But how could she face this problem? She wasn't as strong as Eonis was, that much she was certain of. She wasn't raised to be a hunter. Granted she did train with them when she was younger, but she never fulfilled that training. All she had wanted was a normal life.
She wanted to believe that her brother was dead, that she could fall in love with someone else. After graduation, she wanted to believe she could have a family of her own, raise them away from what she had been born and raised into. As the days passed though, it was becoming apparent that the normal life she desired would not be in her grasp. It would continue to slip through her fingers and she would never possess it. This caused her to stop in her journey, tears stinging the sides of her eyes. Her eyes were set in a glare at the ground as the tears fell. She hated this. She hated crying over something that was out of her control.
"Okaa-san," she called out, glancing up at the sky. "I don't know what to do. I--" a slight pause in her throat as she turned away. "I need help," she finished. She glanced around, as if expecting an answer, however; there was none. She laughed bitterly to herself. Of course she wouldn't receive an answer. Her mother wasn't here. Her mother and her father were both gone. She didn't know where they were, but how she missed them so dearly right now. And how she needed them. She was brought out of her stupor when a golden butterfly appeared in front of her, fluttering softly as if it were having trouble flying. She plucked it from the air and held it gently in her hands.
It flapped it's wings softly before flying off again, beckoning for Kiyoko to follow it. She smiled softly as she followed after the butterfly. Was it going to lead her out of this maze? Or was it going to lead her deeper within? Kiyoko did not know, but there was a sense of serenity washing over her in the process. It felt as if it were lifting all of her problems from her, forcing her to forget them. As such, she soon found herself staring at the front gates of the Academy. She watched as the butterfly landed in her hand, flapping it's wings once more. "Thank you," she muttered, watching as the butterfly disintegrated and turned into a golden dust. The wind carried it away from her. She opened the gates and made her way silently towards her dorm. If he was still up and about doing patrols, she didn't want to be caught. She didn't want to have to see him right now, nor make him follow through with his threat.
So she tread as quietly and as quickly as she could. She stopped, however, in front of the cherry blossom tree where the trouble first sprouted from. She placed a hand on the bark, watching as the petals fell softly around her. She could feel an overwhelming sadness plaguing her. It tore at her heart and she couldn't explain it. She fell to her knee's, face clutched in her hands as she felt the tears once again pour from her. The cherry blossoms continued to fall around her, covering her in a light blanket of pink. At this point in time, she didn't care if he followed through with his promise. He would be doing everyone a favor. She wouldn't be targeted by Atlas, he wouldn't have to deal with her as a problem, and most of all, she could finally be at peace. That wasn't such a bad thing to wish for...was it?